Modern Sense of "Stalk," v.

[Laurence Horn]

I wonder whether tracking the use of "stalker" might help pin down the rise of the modern use.  Euell Gibbons could recommend stalking the wild asparagus in 1970 or so, but that didn't make him a stalker.

LH

On Dec 19, 2011, at 8:53 PM, Garson O'Toole wrote:

> Stalk is being extended in a natural way, I think. Here are examples
> in 1913 and 1922 that seem to be moving close to the modern meaning.
>
> Cite: 1913, The Crimson Cross, Charles Edmonds Walk, Millard Lynch
> Page 255-256, A.C. McClurg & Co. (Google Books full view)
>
> http://books.google.com/books?id=44AeAAAAMAAJ&q=implacable#v=snippet&
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> Of late I have been seeing his shadowed visage everywhere. He is
> stalking me close, the grim silent old chap sure servant of as cruel
> and implacable a foe as ever hounded a man to his grave; a foe who has
> marked me for his own, even as all of his enemies before me were
> marked - God alone knows how many. One thing I do know, however, -
> none ever escaped him. Each one fell before his devilish power, and it
> has been hammered home to me that my time is near at hand.
> [End excerpt]
>
> Cite: 1921, Letters to Isabel by Lord Shaw of Dumerfermline, Page 119,
> Cassell and Company, London. (Google Books full view)
>
> http://books.google.com/books?id=MZcxAQAAIAAJ&q=stalking#v=snippet&
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> It turned out that Morley had been keeping his eye upon, and in fact
> stalking me. Greater prominence had, you see, been given to my
> becoming Solicitor General, because the Unionists, although I had
> entered the House only about eighteen months, before and stood on the
> same ticket, blundered badly in contesting the seat. A fluent English
> barrister was found to oppose me, and he was handsomely beaten after a
> rattling contest. The majority was nearly doubled and the Burghs came
> to be looked upon as a Radical stronghold.
> [End excerpt]
>
> The "eighteen months" mentioned may not fit the OED notion of
> "extended period of time".
>
> I've only read small sections of these works do I do not know the
> larger context.
>
> Garson
>
> On Mon, Dec 19, 2011 at 8:18 PM, Jesse Sheidlower <jester at panix.com> wrote:
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Jesse Sheidlower <jester at PANIX.COM>
>> Subject:      Re: Modern Sense of "Stalk," v.
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> On Tue, Dec 20, 2011 at 12:26:56AM +0000, Shapiro, Fred wrote:
>>>
>>> The OED's earliest citation for "stalk," in the sense "To harass or
>>> persecute (a person, esp. a public figure) with unwanted, obsessive,
>>> and usually threatening attention over an extended period of time," is
>>> dated 1981. A correspondent of Harvard Magazine, in the current issue,
>>> quotes John le Carre's 1968 novel A Small Town in Germany: "He would
>>> never do such a thing. It was not in his nature. ... He assured me
>>> categorically that he was not ... stalking me."
>>>
>>> Jesse, does the OED have any earlier evidence for this sense? Can
>>> anyone else produce pre-1968 citations?
>>
>> We don't have anything earlier than what's in the published entry. I'd
>> welcome any evidence....
>>
>> Jesse Sheidlower
>> OED
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org